Sunday Political Talk Show interviews during 2013-2015: on Technology

Evan McMullin: Supports government funding for space travel

Evan McMullin's answer: Yes

Mike Pence has not answered this question yet.

Tim Kaine's answer: Yes

John Kasich: Develop capability to identify & destroy cyber-attackers

On cybersecurity, Kasich said the US must not only defend itself but also demonstrate that it has the capability "to identify and destroy" attacking systems. "We need to make cyber defense an integral component of our national security strategy," he said.

In Feb. 2016, he said he supported a federal court order that would require Apple to help the FBI unlock a terrorist suspect's iPhone: "I don't think it's an example of government overreach to say that we had terrorists here on our soil and we've got to understand more detail about who they may have been communicating wi

Tim Kaine: Supports government funding for space travel

Tim Kaine's answer: Yes

Mike Pence has not answered this question yet.

Evan McMullin's answer: Yes

Darrell Castle: UN globalization observes every human being electronically

A: I want the United States to be a free and independent country, able to make its own decisions in the world. I don't want it to be isolated, that's usually the charge you get when you talk about things like this. But [the U.N.] is the center of many of things in the world that I don't like. It's the center of depopulation and it's the center of the destruction of sovereignty of nations. It's the center of this new global world that we seem to be building. For example, Mr. Trump says he wants to build a wall on the southern border supposedly to prevent immigrants from entering the United States illegally, but the same time he's talking about that, the United States government is building a digital wall, an electronic wall around the entire world so that it can observe every human being on earth, 24/7, no matter where they go. I would like to start the process of taking that whole system apart.

John Kasich: USA Freedom Act needs balance, not aggressive government

When asked about the USA Freedom Act, in a radio interview, Kasich said: "Conservatives are in general very distrustful for government, as they should be. But I think there's a balance between good intelligence and the need to protect Americans from what can become an aggressive government somewhere down the road. I'm not giving carte blanche to anybody in the federal government. There has to be rules, restrictions and regulations that restrain them."

However, at a Republican debate in December, where government surveillance was discussed, Kasich called out encryption as a major problem, saying, "Congress has got to deal with [encryption] and so does the president to keep us safe."

John Kasich: Broadcast Judeo-Christian values abroad, to help defeat ISIS

"We need to beam messages around the world" about the freedoms Americans enjoy, Kasich said. "It means freedom, it means opportunity, it means respect for women, it means freedom to gather, it means so many things."

The US already has a government-funded broadcast system in Voice of America, which broadcasts American news and programming abroad. The radio, television and digital audience reaches up to 188 million people per week.

Lawrence Lessig: Free culture movement: oppose excessively strict copyright

Donald Trump: FactCheck: 24% of our bridges are in trouble, not 59%

On Aug. 25, Trump said, "Our bridges, 59% of our bridges are in trouble. Think--whoever heard of that? I mean, in trouble. Serious trouble." Whoever heard of that? Not the FHWA. The agency annually produces a report on the state of the nation's bridges. The FHWA's most recent report found 61,365 bridges were "structurally deficient" and 84,525 were "functionally obsolete" in 2014. That's a total of 24%

Functionally obsolete doesn't mean the bridge is unsafe: it may be the source of traffic jams or may not have a high enough clearance to allow an oversized vehicle.

We don't mean to minimize the number of bridges in need of attention, but the number is simply not as high as Trump says. Where did he get the figure 59%? We don't know. His campaign did not respond to our questions.

Jill Stein: Renew our infrastructure and assure everyone has a job

STEIN: So, our top plank really is a Green New Deal to transform our economy to a green economy, 100 percent wind, water and sun by the year 2030--we can do it; this is an emergency, and we must do it--but to use that as an opportunity to put America back to work, to renew our infrastructure and to basically assure that everyone has a job. That's another key plank of our Power to the People Plan, that it ensures economic rights for everyone--the right to a job, the right to complete healthcare through a Medicare for All, improved Medicare-for-All plan; that we ensure the right to quality education, from preschool through college, and that includes free public higher education and abolishing student debt.

Donald Trump: Rebuild our infrastructure on time & on budget

I look at the roads being built all over the country, and I say I can build those things for one-third. What they do is unbelievable, how bad.

We have to rebuild our infrastructure, our bridges, our roadways, our airports. You come into La Guardia Airport, it's like we're in a third world country. You look at the patches and the 40-year-old floor. They throw down asphalt. And I come in from China and I come in from Qatar and I come in from different places, and they have the most incredible airports in the world. You come to back to this country and you have LAX, disaster. You have all of these disastrous airports. We have to rebuild our infrastructure.

Rick Perry: Snowden verged on treachery; WikiLeaks put U.S. in jeopardy

RP: Well, listen, I think that Snowden verged on absolute treachery, if not absolutely so. There, if you've got a problem with this country, there are ways of dealing with it. Taking that information and putting it out the way he did put American citizens and American allies in jeopardy. I don't consider that to be anything close to patriotic. I consider it to be treasonous, as a matter of fact.

Lindsey Graham: I don't email & I've never sent an email

Graham's answer: "I don't email. No, you can have every email I've ever sent. I've never sent one." He added: "I don't know what that makes me." The South Carolina senator said that the email issue raises important questions about Clinton's communications. "Did she communicate on behalf of The Clinton Foundation as Secretary of State?" he asked.

Fellow Republican Sen. John McCain made a similar statement about his email practices on MSNBC.

Jeb Bush: BlackBerry pictured in official gubernatorial portrait

Bush's reliance on written communications presages his habits as an elected official. As governor, he was known to spend up to 30 hours a week on email and so adored his BlackBerry that he insisted on featuring the device in his official portrait.

The archives at the Bush and Reagan libraries contain more than 1,200 pages of documents relating to Bush, capturing dozens of exchanges between him and the White House staff. But even that may represent just a fraction of his messages, since the archives are incomplete.

Marco Rubio: Release anti-North Korea movie despite cyber-attack

RUBIO: First of all, the president in his end-of-year press conference alluded to the fact that there will be response and a strong one and a measured one, but one that's reciprocal. And I will support that. But, second, it's important that that movie be played, that that movie be seen. I don't even know if it's a good movie, but I think it's now important that that happen, that we figure out way to get that out there so Americans can watch it. It's unacceptable that this attack not just on our country, not just on a business located in America, but on our constitutional freedoms, if it's unresponded to, if it stays the way it is now, it is going to be an incentive for others to try and do the exact same thing in the future.

Marco Rubio: Net neutrality is government regulation of the Internet

Companies like Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Yelp--through their Washington trade group, the Internet Association--are public backers of net neutrality. They together have praised Obama for endorsing an approach that might subject the Internet to utility-like regulation. All three Republicans, however, rejected the president's suggestion. Rubio hammered it as "government regulation of the Internet" that "threatens to restrict Internet growth and increase costs on Internet users." And Cruz lambasted net neutrality as "ObamaCare for the Internet" in a tweet that went viral--and drew plenty of criticism.

Rand Paul: Oppose net neutrality; Silicon Valley has no uniform support

Companies like Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Yelp--through their Washington trade group, the Internet Association--are public backers of net neutrality. They together have praised Obama for endorsing an approach that might subject the Internet to utility-like regulation. All three Republicans, however, rejected the president's suggestion.

To hear Paul tell it, the party hasn't hurt its standing among the tech crowd. He and others, for example, have backed high-skilled labor reforms in the past. The GOP senator also stressed that support for net neutrality is "not actually uniform throughout Silicon Valley."

Ted Cruz: Net neutrality is ObamaCare for the Internet

Companies like Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Yelp--through their Washington trade group, the Internet Association--are public backers of net neutrality. They together have praised Obama for endorsing an approach that might subject the Internet to utility-like regulation. All three Republicans, however, rejected the president's suggestion. Rubio hammered it as "government regulation of the Internet" that "threatens to restrict Internet growth and increase costs on Internet users." And Cruz lambasted net neutrality as "ObamaCare for the Internet" in a tweet that went viral--and drew plenty of criticism.

Rick Perry: Don't saddle Internet with Great Depression-era regulations

"President Obama's call to saddle 21st century technology with outdated, unnecessary regulations from the era of the Great Depression is alarming and will stifle innovation and growth," Perry said, attributing Texas' prosperity to "regulatory certainty and major private investments in critical technology infrastructure. Instead, we should embrace a business and regulatory climate that encourages competition and empowers consumers with greater choice and access to high-speed Internet," he said

Chris Christie: Focus on bipartisan reforms instead of Bridgegate

CHRISTIE: There was no climate in our administration that would ever permit that and the termination of folks who were involved I think proves that very clearly. [I focus instead on] our bipartisan record of having achieve property tax reform, pension and benefit reform, & tax cuts in New Jersey.

Lindsey Graham: Ban online gambling (but not casino gambling)

In an effort to stop the gambling, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) are expected to introduce a bill this week to restore the former interpretation of the Wire Act. The introduction of their bills come after heavy lobbying from GOP mega-donor and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who opposes the legalization of online gambling.

In his letter, Perry--who received funding from Adelson during his 2007 campaign for governor--said restoring the former interpretation of the Wire Act and reinstating the federal ban on online gambling would bolster state rights.

Rick Perry: Time-out on online gambling at federal level

In his letter, Perry said restoring the former interpretation of the Wire Act and reinstating the federal ban on online gambling would bolster state rights. "When gambling occurs in the virtual world, the ability of states to determine whether the activity should be available to its citizens and under what conditions is left subject to the vagaries of the technological marketplace," he said. He urged Congress to "carefully examine the short- and long-term social and economic consequences before Internet gambling spread."

Chris Christie: Bridgegate: Staff made some significant mistakes in judgment

Asked about the bridge controversy, Christie replied that large organizations are "inherently flawed because they are inhabited by human beings."

"Some people who worked for me made some significant mistakes in judgment," he said, leaving it at that.

Former Gov. Ted Strickland (D, OH) was on hand to ensure that the controversy was not cast off so tidily, saying he found it hard to swallow the claim that Christie was unaware of his administration's role in the lane closings: "Either the governor knew & he is lying or he is the most inept, incompetent chief executive imaginable.

Chris Christie: Fired aides for Bridgegate: traffic jam as retribution

Christie has repeatedly denied he had any knowledge of or involvement in an alleged plot to cause massive traffic problems in Fort Lee, New Jersey, last year as a possible act of political retribution. He fired two of his top aides accused of orchestrating the incident, while a third resigned shortly before the story became national news. But now the issue is the subject of investigations by a state legislative committee and the Justice Department.

In a nearly 2-hour press conference last month, Christie defended his reputation as Democrats tried to characterize him as a spiteful leader. "I am not a bully," Christie said.

Rand Paul: Bridgegate is unsettling; government should not bully people

Paul said in an interview that it's not for him to judge whether the New Jersey governor should step down as chairman of the Republican Governors Association while he deals with the bridge scandal, but "It's important that people think that their government not be used to bully them," Paul told the CNN affiliate in Houston. "So for example, one of the things that conservatives have been upset with President Obama is that it looked like he was using the IRS to target taxpayer groups."

"Nobody wants to think their government would shut down a bridge or do something just because you're a Democrat and I'm a Republican," Paul said. "It's unsettling and it's a serious charge. I don't know if it's true, but it's unsettling."

Rand Paul: 5% tax on overseas profits & put it all into infrastructure

PAUL: You know, we make the mistake up there that we try to agree to too much. I'm the first to acknowledge the president and I don't agree on every issue, but if you took ten issues I think there are two or three that we agree on, and we agree firmly on, and why don't we go after the issues that we agree on? When I was at the White House a couple of weeks ago, I said to the president, "I want to increase infrastructure spending, and I know you do. Let's let companies bring back their profit from overseas at 5% and put it all in infrastructure." And I've been talking with Senator Durbin, others in the Senate on the Democrat side. I think we could agree to that tomorrow, but we have to go ahead and just narrow the focus and not say, "Oh, we're going to do overall tax reform," because we don't agree on overall tax reform.

Rand Paul: Generalized warrants for all cellphones is unconstitutional

PAUL: One single warrant should not apply to everyone who has a cell phone in America. One of the things that Edward Snowden released was a single court order to the company Verizon that all of their customers records would be looked at. That to my mind smacks of a generalized warrant. That's what we fought the revolutionary war over. So, I think by bringing a class-action suit, where we have thousands of people who come forward and say, "my cell phone records are mine unless you go to a judge & ask a judge specifically for my records," you shouldn't be able to have a general warrant. A class-action lawsuit really brings to the forefront the idea that this is a generalized warrant and it should be considered unconstitutional.

Rand Paul: Snowden revealed NSA abuses, but a fair prison term is ok

I don't think we can't selectively apply the law. Edward Snowden did break a law and there is a prison sentence for that. I don't think Snowden deserves the death penalty or life in prison. I think that's inappropriate. And I think that's why he fled, because that's what he faced. Do I think that it's OK to leak secrets and give up national secrets and things that could endanger lives? I don't think that's OK, either. But I think the courts are now saying that what he revealed was something the government was doing was illegal.

So no clemency for Edward Snowden, but perhaps leniency?

PAUL: Well, I think the only way he's coming home is if someone would offer him a fair trial with a reasonable sentence. I think, really, in the end, history is going to judge that he revealed great abuses of our government and great abuses of our intelligence community.

Rand Paul: 4th Amendment bans NSA from collecting everyone's phone data

PAUL: I would like to apply the Fourth Amendment to third-party records. I don't think you give up your privacy when someone else holds your records. So, when I have a contract with a phone company, those are still my records. And the government can look at them if they ask a judge. But the most important thing is, a warrant applies to one person. A warrant doesn't apply to everyone in America. So, it's absolutely against the spirit and the letter of the Fourth Amendment to say that a judge can write one warrant and you can get every phone call in America. That's what's happening. I think it's wrong. It goes against everything America stands for. And I will help to fight that all the way to the Supreme Court.

Q: So, you would ban mass data mining?

PAUL: I'm not opposed to the NSA. But I am in favor of the Fourth Amendment.